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Monday, October 8, 2012

Mystery on Monday: Guest Kathryn Jones on Writing Across Genres

My guest today is author Kathryn Jones, who tells us why she doesn't like to write inside the genre box. ~ Sheila

It's a Mystery: Why I write Both Christian
Fiction and Cozy

By Kathryn Jones

It's been said that to really make it
in this world an author must choose a genre and stick with it because readers
will know what they write (whether it be fantasy, historical or chick-lit) and
will follow them to the ends of the earth to get it. And while I'm a firm
believer in taking readers on an easy to follow direction, whether it be by
land, by sea or somewhere in-between, I'm a firm believer in stepping outside
of the box.

You know the kind of box I mean.

Your parents wanted you to be a
doctor. It's the family business. But you wanted to be an artist. When you
married, your spouse thought you'd put together their lunch like their mother had
always done. And when you told them they were old enough to do it themselves,
they looked at you sort of funny. When you had children, they expected you to
know where they'd put their shoes, their toothbrush, their favorite pair of
jeans.

And so it shouldn't be a mystery why I
write both Christian fiction and cozy mystery.

I hate that old box.

When I was 12 years old I found Nancy
Drew. My mother purchased the first book, "The Bungalow Mystery," and
I read it in just a few days. After that, I loved collecting the yellow books
with the mysterious covers. I loved how Nancy and her friends could uncover any
mystery. And I wanted to be like that.

Now that I'm grown up, it's C.S. Lewis
and Max Lucado. I love them, though neither stick to a specific genre either;
both write children's fiction and adult non-fiction. I love them because they
get to the heart of the matter--the mystery if you will.

So I guess you could say it's always
been about mysteries for me, whether the mystery is in an old clock or huddles within
the confines of my stubborn heart.

And the box?

Who knows where that is.

Kathryn Jones has been a published writer since 1987.She has published various newspaper stories,
magazine articles, essays and short stories for teens and adults.She is the author of A River of Stones, a young adult novel dealing with divorce
published in 2002, and Conquering your
Goliaths—A Parable of the Five Stones, a Christian novel published in
January of 2012. One of her newest creations, a Conquering your Goliaths—Guidebook, was published in February of
2012. Scrambled, published in
September 2012, is her first cozy mystery.

Kathryn graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in
Mass Communication and a minor in Creative Writing. Her studies included work
in creative writing, public relations and journalism. Recently, she has opened
the doors to Idea Creations Press, a publishing services company that caters to
writers and their writing, publishing and marketing needs.